Sultan bin Mohamed Al-Qasimi
Overview
Sharjah (city)
Sharjah is the third largest and most populous city in the United Arab Emirates. It is located along the southern coast of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula.Sharjah is the seat of government of the emirate of Sharjah...
) is a member of the Supreme Council of the United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
and current ruler of the Sharjah emirate
Emirate
An emirate is a political territory that is ruled by a dynastic Muslim monarch styled emir.-Etymology:Etymologically emirate or amirate is the quality, dignity, office or territorial competence of any emir ....
. He has ruled Sharjah since 1972, apart from a six-day period between June 17 and 23, 1987, during which an attempted coup involving his brother Sheikh `Abd al-`Aziz bin Muhammad al-Qasimi took place. He is also an established historian and has published several theatrical and literary works.
In 1986, Sheikh Sultan authored a book, "The Myth of Arab Piracy in the Gulf" (In Arabic: أسطورة القرصنة العربية في الخليج), in which he argues that the East India Company
East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
was determined to increase its share of Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
trade by all possible means and principally by the accusation of piracy and the need to fight it.
